The Moral Life of Cubicles

This post is dedicated to the Cinema-Mad Sibling and everyone else who has ever worked in an office cubicle. (I have too, and I can't tell you how happy I am to escape that.) You know, the thought occurs to me that perhaps the CPD, La Parisienne, and I should apologize for recently making fun of the Cine-Sib by making up and singing a song about cubicles -- and singing it to him over my cellphone while we were out of town having fun. But I'm evil and therefore feel no need to apologize. Besides, I'm sure that the Cine-Sib, who is even now in his cubicle as he reads this, is plotting his revenge -- and why should I deny him that opportunity for time-honored inter-sibling warfare?

Anyway, going on! Here is an interesting article on the history and the "moral life" of the cubicle. I like this little tidbit:

In Dilbert, The Office, Office Space, and many other popular satires of contemporary work, cubicles are a symbol of all that is uninspiring about office life, and on this point, cubicles seem utterly without defenders. Fortune recently ran an article called “Cubicles: The Great Mistake,” complete with a public apology from one of the first cubicle designers. Twenty years after his Atlantic article extolling the virtues of the cubicled office, James Fallows wrote another on how he changed his mind. The promises of a cubicle utopia now seem curious, to say the least. In fact, the companies that make cubicles increasingly offer up apologies of their own. Steelcase, in its “State of the Cubicle” report, addresses the “Dilbert-type issues” that surround them, turning to head of design James Ludwig for a response. “Our goal in design would be to unfold the cubicle in ways that might make it unrecognizable.” The cubicle, once a cutting edge statement of corporate identity, has become an embarrassment, even for its makers.

Really!

Now I feel the overwhelming urge to watch "Office Space." Yes, today is that dreaded first day of the week, and I have "a case of the Moooooooooooondays"!

PS: How do you reconcile "the moral life of cubicles" with the glorious habit of humorous cubicle warfare? Here are two hysterical examples: one and two.